The opening of the sixteenth century formed a remark- | cruelty and force; and many reigning princes, influable epoch in the history of the world-a thirst for knowledge-a desire for information regarding the rights of men, both as to spiritual and temporal matters, manifested itself in a particular manner over that part of the Continent; and the human mind awakening from the torpor and lethargy in which it had, for ages, been held by the tyranny of the Church of Rome, blazed forth with renewed power and energy.

The unprincipled conduct of Leo X., as to the sale of indulgences (to which I have already alluded), excited the indignation of every reflecting mind, and this was increased to the highest degree, when Rome poured her emissaries into Saxony, where its exactions became intolerable. The right to raise money there by the sale of indulgences was farmed out and sold to the highest bidder, and the proceeds made a present of by Leo to his sister, to increase the already overgrown wealth of his family, thus setting all decency and the laws of justice and morality at defiance. Luther was the first of the great pioneers of the Reformation, who | openly preached against the sale of these indulgences in 1516, for which he was excommunicated by the Pope in 1520. But he gloried in the justice of his cause, and stood undismayed amidst the dangers and the threatenings which surrounded him on all sides. In 1525 he renounced the monk's habit, and espoused Catherine de Bore, thus encouraging, by his example, | other priests, condemned to celibacy by the rules of the Romish Church, to follow the dictates of rea. son and of nature. Several princes and rulers, attracted by the prospect of ecclesiastical spoliation, and dividing among themselves lands and property which the rapacity of the Church had monopolised for so many years, eagerly adopted the tenets and principles of the Reformed doctrines. The Elector of Saxony was the first to give the example; and the States of Hesse, Hanover, Suabia, the Palatinate, part of Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, and Silesia, soon afterwards adopted the new religion. Calvin appeared in | France in 1533. Persecuted there, on account of the change in his opinions on matters of faith, he retired to Basle, where he published his Institutes.

In 1536 the town of Geneva entered the lists, and added new strength and influence to the cause of the Reformation. In 1539, Joachim II., Elector of Brandenburg, embraced the doctrines of Luther, and the Bishop of Brandenburg followed his example. Henry VIII. of England, having written against Luther, received from Pope Leo X. the title of "Defender of the Faith." However, as Henry could not persuade the haughty pontiff to annul his marriage with Catherine of Arragon, the King separated from her of his own authority. Clement VII., for this act of insubordination and disobedience to the holy See, excommunicated Henry, which induced him to adopt and promulgate the Reformed religion in England.

At this critical period in the history of Europe, the influence and authority of the See of Rome was giving way on all sides, and the power and ecclesiastical tyranny they had wielded over the minds of ignoraut and credulous men for fifteen centuries, gradually disappeared before the voice of reason and common sense. Finding the threats and fulminations of the Vatican of no avail, they thought of keeping the world in awe by

enced by the crafty policy of the Church, and still trembling under its authority, had the weakness to receive, and the cruelty to execute, orders from the Papal government, for the extermination of millions of unoffending individuals, who were either burned alive at the stake, tortured and immolated within the walls of the Inquisition, or hunted down at the point of the bayonet, by hired assassins for that purpose. Of the perpetration of these horrid atrocities, the massacre of St Bartholomew, the cruelties in the Austrian Netherlands, and, at a later period, the persecutions of the Protestants in the Palatinate subsequent to the revocation of the edict of Nantes, form most memorable and striking examples; and let it ever be remembered, that every one of these bloody and remorseless deeds were committed either by direct orders from the See of Rome, or connived at by that redoubtable tribunal. One thing is certain, that on all these occasions Te Deum was celebrated at Rome-thus offering up thanks to a God of mercy and of peace for having committed acts which make humanity shudder, and which generations yet unborn will hardly believe to have been perpetrated. The Emperor Charles V. was at the head of the Popish party in Germany, when the war began in 1546, on account of the prevailing differences on matters of faith. It terminated by the peace of Passau. Nearly a century afterwards, the Protestant princes, interested in the preservation of their rights and territorial possessions, formed a confederation at Lauenburg, which involved Germany in a long war. It was terminated by the peace of Westphalia in 1648, which formed the basis of every subsequent negotiation, where either the temporal or spiritual interests of the parties were concerned. Exhausted Europe began to revive, after such long protracted struggles; the arts and sciences received more encouragement from the princes who had contended for mastery; and thus a prospect opened for suffering humanity, which the nations hailed with joyous anticipations.

Amidst the vicissitudes and changes appertaining to the Roman Catholic Church, which I have shortly been adverting to, its policy remains the same, its spiritual pride unsubdued, its thirst for worldly power and universal domination unaltered, and, as far as we can judge from the past, unalterable. If the See of Rome had the power, the horrors of the Inquisition would be revived in every country-the gibbet and the rack be in operation, to depress and subdue the energies of the human mind, and bring it again under the thraldom of ecclesiastical despotism. But these days, we trust, are for ever gone. The sword of persecution has returned to its scabbard; the funeral pile, raised up to consume human victims, exists no more; the instruments of torture are shown only as objects of curiosity; and the thunders of the Vatican, as well as the benedictions of the "most holy father," are unheeded and uncared for beyond the banks of the Tiber.

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it exceeds the limits of our finite comprehensions. The idea is vast, but it is of awful importance; it teaches us how every man shall be judged-not as a mere isolated being, but as connected with the men of all ages and of all countries.

THE individual responsibility of man is a subject | peculiarities received from him by his relatives fraught with interest, and one which is well wor- and associates, are communicated in turn to all thy of engaging the attention of every reflecting within their sphere, for each individual is, as it mind. We must, each one of us, give an account were, the sun of his own system, and thus it is of himself to God. All our talents, advantages, that every step we proceed, the problem of our and opportunities of improvement must be weigh-moral responsibility becomes more intricate, until ed as in the balance of the sanctuary, and every man shall receive according to his deeds, whether they have been good, or whether they have been evil. Such a consideration as this lends an awful importance to every thought, and word, and action. It is written in the book of God's remembrance, Let these remarks be duly weighed, and the and shall ultimately receive its corresponding re- Christian cannot fail to discern the reasonableness ward or its corresponding punishment. It is a fact, and propriety of "walking honestly towards them indeed, laid down with undoubted certainty, in the that are without." His character stands out as it Sacred Scriptures, that there is an intimate and were in bold relief from the multitude of his felmost important connection between the present low-mortals around him, the majority of whom and a future life,—a connection affecting our happi- are impelled by motives and principles of action ness both in time and through eternity. In this essentially different from his own. From the view, our present stage of being must be regarded exalted station in society which the believer ocby us as the seed-time, which will be followed in cupies as a "light of the world," he is too often due course by a harvest-time hereafter. "For an object of suspicion and jealousy to the inconwhatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." siderate and ungodly, and professing as he does, Each individual's actions and feelings have thus to feel the power of those doctrines which are an obvious bearing upon his happiness or misery."according to godliness," an argument is readily And, moreover, every individual is operating upon every other individual; and not only has each his own peculiar sphere over which he communicates the influence, whether beneficial or otherwise, of his own example; but there is also a more extensive system with which he is as intimately, though not perhaps so obviously connected-a system, including the men of every age and of every clime. To these he communicates his own share, however minute, of peculiar opinions, and expressions, and habits, and customs. A little reflection will satisfy us as to the truth of this remark; and in illustration of it, select an individual from the humblest, and what are termed the most uninfluential, classes of society. He has his own sphere, however limited, within which his own dispositions, and feelings, and habits are incessantly operating upon those around him. These No. 139. AUGUST 28, 1841.—1d]

deduced from his occasional errors, by the enemies of the Cross, in vindication of their wickedness and contempt of the Gospel.

But while many superficial thinkers have been repelled from the walks of Christianity by this hollow reasoning, from the improper conduct of men, to the falsehood of statements which must ever be independent of all who profess them; it is consoling to reflect that the influence of a habitually devout, and regular, and consistent Christian deportment, is peculiarly attractive. Though our nature be undoubtedly corrupt, yet there is no man whose perception is so blunted, as not to admire the beautiful in moral character. There seems to be a charm in holiness which commands the reverence, and gains the esteem of all within the sphere of its exhibition; for when the Christian graces are habitually exercised in the daily [SECOND SERIES. VOL. III.

intercourse of life, not only is the world constrained | deportment in strict harmony with the principles to admire them, but to admit that there is a reality in that transforming influence, which Christianity is alleged to operate. Thus it is, that by a view of the Christian character, presented under various aspects, some of the most determined enemies of our most holy faith have become its warmest and most decided friends.

you have professed. To your fellow-Christians you owe that love which is the invariable characteristic of those who have "passed from death unto life;" and to the unbelieving world around, you owe a decorous, and creditable, and consistent conduct. If you preserve not in your intercourse with those who are "without," that strict integrity of character, and purity of intention, and singleness of heart, which invariably command respect, you give occasion to the enemy to bring against you the charge of inconsistency, and even to blaspheme that holy name by the which you are called. What follower of Jesus, whose conscience is tender in respect of the slightest infringement upon the honour of his Lord, would not feel humbled to the dust at the idea that bis conduct had given rise to such hardened impiety? If even the world's votaries, who scoff at religion, surpass you in the common virtues, and decencies, and charities of life, what are your boasted professions of religion, but the whitened coating of the sepulchre," which within is full of rottenness and all uncleanness? Ah! it is impossible to describe the injury which hath been done in the world by inconsistent professors of the truth. How many weak Christians have, by their unhallowed influence, been led to stumble and fall? How many lukewarm professors of the Christian faith have they tended, by their example, to lull into indifference and spiritual slumber! How many tears have they wrung from the eyes of the true followers of Jesus! What vigour have they imparted to the unholy purpose!--what celerity to the melancholy pro

There is a peculiar influence, however, which in every possible situation the believer exercises over those who are "without." When in his general deportment he evinces that he has been with Jesus, every opinion he utters, every action he performs, conveys a corresponding impression to the mind of the unbeliever, who hears the one or witnesses the other. It either impresses him with the superiority of the Christian character, or establishes him in his rooted contempt of the truth. It either attracts or it repels him, leading him to pause and consider his ways, or exciting him to a more quickened progress along the road that leadeth to destruction. The reflection is solemn, but its truth is undeniable. Professing Christians, by every word that escapes from their lips, and by every action, however apparently trivial, of their lives, exert a decided influence upon the world. Mind cannot act without influencing mind, either directly or indirectly. Intelligence, purpose, affection, are every moment either polluting or purifying the air we breathe, and to this noxious or healthful influence, every individual, and, more especially, every professing Christian, is accessory. Without the pale of true Christianity, one dark mass of moral pollution infests the atmosphere, like a pestilential vapour. Would to God we could affirm that within the circle in which Chris-gress of the sinner! Unjust in their dealings, tians live and breathe, a clear, unpolluted atmosphere, at all times exerted its healthful and invigorating influence; but as long as they bear about with them a body of sin and death, an event so desirable cannot be expected. In proportion, however, be it ever remembered, to the extent of their inconsistency of character, in the same proportion are they engaged in promoting the cause of the Prince of darkness, and encouraging those who "are without," in their opposition to the truth. How melancholy the thought that they who ought to prove themselves the salt of the earth, should, instead of preserving the world from destruction, hasten even by one hour the completion of that process of moral corruption, which will at length draw down the wrath of God against "all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." Better were it, my Christian readers, infinitely better, that the name of Jesus never escaped from your lips, than that you should exhibit to the world a cold, heartless, inconsistent profession, which, instead of establishing, only unsettles the wavering; and instead of disarming, only confirms the unbeliever in a more hardy and determined resistance to the Gospel of Christ. You stand conspicuous in the world, as having openly declared yourselves on the Lord's side, and in every thing you are naturally expected to maintain a

false in their assertions, unfaithful to their engagements, slothful in their business, they disregard those pure and lofty motives which ought ever to actuate the believer in all the circumstances and relations of life. What wonder is it, then, should their character be an object of contempt in the view of every discerning man, and reprobate in the sight of the infinitely pure Jehovah? They endeavour, and too often succeed in their endeavours, to deceive their fellow-men; but God cannot be deceived. He will not be mocked, and the period is fast approaching when they shall stand finally at His judgment-seat.

Should any Christian who knows and who loves the Saviour, peruse these imperfect hints, we beseech him, if he regards the cause of God and of truth, to strive and pray that in all things he may "walk circumspectly." Remember that every step you take in life involves in it a high moral responsibility, affecting your happiness throughout eternal ages, and not yours only, but the happiness of all within the reach of your influence. Be especially careful, that in all your dealings and intercourse with the world, the Christian graces may shine forth in their native brightness, lest you should tend, by the slightest inconsistency of conduct, to retard by one hour the return of a single soul to God, or confirm one sinner in his